He was a crazy, racist gunman – but not a legally crazy, racist gunman.

That was the verdict in Manhattan yesterday that will likely send an AIDS-infected, unemployed barber to prison for the rest of his life for holding an East Village bar captive at gunpoint in 2002, squirting kerosene on terrorized patrons inside Bar Veloce on Second Avenue and promising, “White people are going to burn tonight!”

Lawyers for Steven Johnson, 39, of Brooklyn, had argued at his now-concluded attempted-murder trial, and at a 2004 mistrial, he was not guilty by reason of insanity.

But after a week of deliberations, a Manhattan Supreme Court jury found that while Johnson was clearly crazy, he was still guilty of 56 charges of kidnapping, attempted murder and assault.

Johnson, who has a 20-year record of drug and weapons arrests, was found not guilty of six charges of attempted murder of a police officer and of attempted murder as a hate crime. Johnson shot three people, including a cop, herded his captives into a back room, doused them with kerosene and asked, “Do you want it hot?”